China Telecom in talks to carry Pre?

It is one sentence in a Financial Times article about Chinese telecoms, but it says a lot:

“And China Telecom is planning to offer the Palm to its subscribers.”

Presumably, ‘the Palm’ means the Palm Pre. It works out well for China Telecom, as they are the country’s largest CDMA carrier and are in the process of rolling out an EV-DO network, while competitor China Unicom looks likely to score Apple’s iPhone. Getting the Pre in China would be a win for Palm, as adding the nation of 1.33 billion to distribution channels would increase Palm’s addressable market by nearly 150% over currently announced partnerships (with approximately 540 million possible customers in markets covered by Sprint, Bell Mobility, and O2/Telefonica). Of course, there’s no telling what sort of government requirements Palm may have to meet in adjusting the Pre such that it will be allowed to be sold in China, so it may be a while.

[via: Engadget]